The Black Pheonix Guild
by Jackson Hughes
Summary: In the world of Aincrad 10,000 players have become trapped in a death game. We know the story of the player known as Kirito. Here's the story of another group of Players the Black Pheonix guild Scaith and his friends Fight for their lives and meet some of the well known players from The Sword art Online series


The Blue haired male stood within the amphitheater's main stage area and clapped his hands "Okay! Let's get this meeting started!" the last few people filtering into the sparsely filled structure took their place on the stone seats and quieted down paying attention to the Speaker. He wore a blue tunic that matched his hair, underneath a bronze colored breast plate on his back was a white kite heater with a black sword emblazoned upon it. "Thank you for coming today at my behest. My name is Diabel. I like to think of myself as a knight." The crowd burst into laughter with that comment as the game obviously had no job system the few comments from the crowd on whether the whole meeting was a joke or not. Diabel quieted them down with a wave of his hands before his carefree smile disappeared replacing it was a businesslike air to the entire amphitheater as he revealed the true reason for the meeting that day. "Today, our party found the boss room at the top of the tower." The entire crowd leaned forward the moment that left his mouth murmur filled the room asking him if he was joking or not. After an entire month in the game, and over two-thousand players dying, the boss room had not been found; at least, not until today. Ignoring the murmuring Diabel continued on, "We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginings that it is possible to beat this game." Diabel had a natural authority that had each and every player gathered listening to him patiently waiting for his plan for them. His voice raised a level for emphasis, "That is the duty of everyone here today! Don't you all agree?" the crowd grew quiet looking around you could see groups of players nodding to each other in agreement with what Diabel was saying. Before too long someone started to clap and it spread like a fire through the crowd. Knowing the crowd was on his side now he took full control, "Okay let's start working this out. First, divide up into parties of six." Once he said this everyone around the Amphitheater began forming groups towards the upper right a few people had gathered and were now Partying up.

A broad-shouldered young man with short, messy deep-brown hair a round face and a friendly demeanor. His in game clothes where still fairly basic he had on a forest green tunic with leather gloves and a leather chestplate it was obvious that his col has been funneled into his weapon. a large broadsword with a green handgaurd and pommel with leather wrapping on the grip was strapped upon his back as he sat at the meeting a smile on his face. Finally they were going to do something about this damned death game. He stood and looked around, a man sitting in a corner his back resting on a pillar with a spear resting on his shoulder in a red tunic with the same basic leather armor. The spear wielder looked too lazy to get up and find his own party so. Walking towards the man he extended his hand "Scaith would you like to party up?" The spear wielding player looked up and smiled a bit,

"Two handed sword? Well pardon me, but here I thought that was a rapier strapped to your back." He laughed and extended his hand, "Lekgolo at your service." Scaith took the hand that was offered to him and shook it laughing with Lekgolo.

"I suppose it is kind of an obvious build when I have it strapped to my back but I assure you, if I tried using a Rapier I'd be useless" Scaith smiled a bit wider getting ready to send the party invite when he was blind-sided by a bundle of black cloth and leather armor. As he flew sideways off the step he was on. Scaith tumbled with whatever had knocked him over down to the base of the amphitheater there was laughter from a few players who saw the scene including Lekgolo who hopped down the steps to help Scaith up again "Ditching me already, Scaith?" He had a smile as a skinny blonde player clad in a black tunic and cloak with leather armor and a rapier on his hip sat rubbing his head where he landed the Blonde looked up. "Heh, sorry, I heard you guys were forming a party and I mis-stepped when I was heading for you." Scaith laughed a bit as he was helped up "Well I don't see why not, so that's three?" He began inputting the invitations to party up with the two new players once they accepted he looked back up and raised his voice a bit "Anyone not in a party yet? We have three players right now!" two hands raised one was that of a younger player who also used a two handed sword build his gear was a base blue tunic and a black leather chestplate the other was a tall one-handed long sword wielder sitting near him clad in a white tunic with blue accents on the arms and trimming covered by a brown leather cuirass. Scaith picked his way to them and introduced himself with a smile. The Blue two handed swordsman introduced himself as Beriadann while the long-swordsman was named Roldeen. The two had previously been partying together but they knew for the raid they needed a larger party than just themselves, Scaith was more than happy to oblige them. Unfortunately they couldn't find a sixth member but with the five of them they felt confident they could handle the task assigned to them by Diabel. 

Once everyone was in a party Diabel started to speak again, "Okay, has everyone formed their parties?" he saw that no one was saying no and started to speak again. "Then-"Before Diabel could continue someone from the back interrupted him.

"Hold on a moment!" the crowd turned to look at the speaker. A spiky haired redhead with tan gear and a metal scale mail breastplate jumped down the stairs landing in front of Diabel addressing the crowd he stood up straight pointing his thumb at himself "My Name's Kibaou. I want to say something before we take on the boss. Some of you need to apologize to the two thousand people who died!" Kibaou pointed accusingly at the crowd stirred a bit and Diabel tried to take control again by asking something "Kibaou-san, could you be referring to the beta testers?"

Kibaou turned on Diabel Angrily still shouting "Obviously! The beta guys ditched us beginners and disappeared the day this stupid game started! They took all the good hunting spots and easy quests for themselves, so only they could get stronger. They couldn't care less about the rest of us." The last sentence had lost its fire but now his anger and frustration burned deep into the words as he shook his fist at the attenders of the meeting. "I'M DAMN SURE SOME OF YOU WHERE IN THE BETA! They should get on their knees, appoligize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded!" Kibaou folded his arms over his chest as he continued his rant about the beta testers. "Otherwise, we can't trust these party members with our lives and they shouldn't trust us!" some of the crowd was murmuring and Beriadann shifted in his seat and seemed to be uncomfortable to Scaith but for now Scaith ignored it focusing on the scene down in front.  
"May I Speak?" A larger member of the crowd stood he had darker skin and wore a large two handed axe on his back. Walking to the front he looked down at Kibaou and spoke, "My name is Agil. Kibaou-san let me get this straight. You're saying many beginners died because the beta testers didn't take care of them, and that they should take responsibility, apologize, and provide compensation. Is that it?" Kibaou seemed extremely intimidated by Agil but responded still "Y-yeah." Agil reached into his pocket and pulled a little brown book, he held it up for everyone to see before speaking "You got a copy of this guidebook didn't you? The Item shop was giving them away." Kibaou looked uncomfortable now speaking with a much more reserved tone of voice, "I did, yeah. So what?" Agil continued speaking in a steady tone "It was compiled from data provided by the beta testers." Everyone seemed surprised by this Scaith however zoned out slightly getting bored with the argument that was happening down at the front of the stage. What did it matter anyways, if the beta testers where here now then there was nothing to worry about. As long as a player was helpful to the rest of his companions what did anyone have to complain about? Agil finished talking about the guidebook then both Kibaou and Agil took a seat. Diabel finally had the stage back, "All right. Let's continue then. The latest edition of the guidebook was just published, and it contains information on the boss. According to it, the bosses name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He is guarded by underlings known as Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He is armed with an axe and a buckler. He has four hp bars and when the last one enters the red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a talwar. His attack pattern changes as well." The crowd listened to Diabel and nodded a few exclamations were made by listeners. Diabel closed the book and addressed the crowd. "This concludes the briefing. As for how the spoils will be distributed, money will be automatically shared amongst all players, EXP will go to the party that defeats the monster, and whoever receives an Item gets to keep it. Any objections?" He waited for ten seconds as the crowd sat in silence he took a breath and started to speak once again. "Okay we leave at ten in the morning tomorrow."Diabel waved his hand concluding the meeting with one final word. "Dismissed!"

Everyone splintered off into their parties and either started talking or moved out to converse in another location Scaith stayed seated hoping the rest of the party stuck around to talk so they could discuss strategy and to learn each other's strengths and weaknesses. Lekgolo sat up "Well then, who's going to be the party leader?"

Scaith shrugged "Does that really matter? I mean this is just for the boss right?"

"I guess that depends on whether or not we work well together or not" Roldeen cut into the conversation "I wouldn't mind if we stuck together for a while. I've been alone for the most part since this game started, if we get along … I don't see any reason we should bail on each other." The rest of the party looked at him sitting in silence for a few moments  
Beriadann finally broke. "I guess we can decide all that after the battle tomorrow, if we even survive it.  
"You're kidding right? With this many players there's no way we can fail" Roldeen seemed confident in the group's ability to take on this challenge "Anyways, Diabel seems to know what he is doing but with the raid being tomorrow we have tons of time to kill what should we do?"  
Lekgolo cracked a smile "Well. . . Who's up for a drink?"


End file.
